BUT i think we should have another section for each game. It should be like what we have now, but there is another "Alternative Gaming Section" You click on the game you play, and it takes you to a forum for that game (Trading[if you can in that game], strategy, general, and a list of users).

This might be a lot more complicated and hard to do then im thinking it is tho.

anyways. just what i think :/ im for expansion to a certain extent...dont want to become huge and have a ton more users. Just to increase the site traffic a bit, and maybe spark peoples interest in other games. D2 should still be the big one tho

I think the problem of expansion is that the forum will become too diverse. LLD101 was basically the best -if not the only- forum Diablo 2 players could go to if they wanted to learn about or get into LLDing. Forums do well because they have a solid community to back them up, all sharing (at one time or another) a similar interest, and this interest is what the forum's theme is.

LLD101 was successful because it dealt with something special. Level 9-30's killing level 70-90's was unheard of for a typical Diablo 2 player. It was something new, something refreshing. With more people finding out about this 'new' way of dueling, LLD101 became basically the #1 resource for LLD because no one else knew or cared about it.

What also made LLD101 special was the fact that it was a community, not a clan. It was a community that catered to anyone who wanted to join, that cared about this aspect of dueling. It gave the sense of community (an identity, if you will) to each member who browsed these forums. "I am an LLD101er." This is also a risker approach because if this was a 'clan' forum, you essentially have guaranteed forumers, but the opportunity for more members becomes smaller. LLD101 lucked out.

It will not work if you 'expand' this forum into more games. Why? There's nothing special about it. There are countless Counter Strike forums, WoW forums...hell, http://www.smashboards.com/ is all anyone needs for Smash Bros because you won't find anything better. What you would need to do, if you wanted to expand, is find a game with a large community. Find something special you can do in that game, because a 'general' forum for that game will not work. Hard to explain this, so I'll give an example: 'Speed run strategies for Half-Life 2.' While this will no doubt fail, it's something unique (http://speeddemosarchive.com/ would cover such a subject like that, but you know what I mean...). It has to also be something that hasn't been done before, or that plenty of people are doing but there's no actual community or regulation behind it.

You could try something like "Hellgate London Low Level Dueling" after testing the game out and seeing if it's actually possible. It would be up to these members, or new people out there, to actually make a statement that Low Level Dueling is possible...and effective. (I know nothing about Hellgate London so don't hold that against me -_-).

Good points. I had thought to focus on PvP across platforms and games, but perhaps that would be too vague a concept, and it is true that niche market websites likely already exist for those games. However, I also think trying to shoehorn the "low-level dueling" concept into other games may end up limiting us to the point where it isn't useful to expand at all.

Maybe, as someone else mentioned, it would be better to look at what games our current player base play and see if we can expand there a little. If there were enough interest in Hellgate: London or Halo, we could add subforums for those things. This addresses one of the problems I see with LLD101: as people quit D2 some of them say "well, I no longer play D2, so I don't need to come here anymore." To my business sense, that means we can and should try to offer them something to keep them here, and that translates into expanding our offerings.

But people are saying "keep the site about D2 and LLD", so if we decided to expand down the road we'd do so with this in mind. Maybe a possibility would be to offer more stuff to do on the site? I know several sites I've visited have odd little games you play right in the web-browser, and they're usually pretty popular._________________The New LLD101 splash page (Props to Shieron)

Have sports draws! Looking at GosuGamers.net, they have a cool "gosubet" system where you get 50 'minerals'. You can 'bet' these 50 minerals on pro Starcraft games, and depending on the odds, you win an amount of minerals accordingly. If your minerals dip below 50, you can simply reset them back up and try again. They have the ladder up for every season (actual seasons ) so there is a winner of each season, and I'm not sure but I think the winner gets a prize.

For here, you can have it Diablo 2 related (Gold pieces? High runes? SoJs?). You cannot allow exchange of any silver for obvious reasons (yes, that means no trading with it). You can relate it to an ongoing sport (NFL Season, NHL Season), event, or hell, you can try to rev up the Arena by having people bet on Arena (or Ladder) matches.

Basically I'm ripping this idea off of GosuGamers.net. Have a ladder system with points, where everyone who is a member here can earn ladder points based on victories of "official" scheduled matches. By the same token, you can also establish a 'betting' system, where people can place bets on scheduled matches, and become the best "Diablo 2 better." It's nearly a fool proof situation because it can avoid conspiracy such as purposely losing matches to gain minerals (if the person loses, they go down on the ladder...), multi-accounting, etc.

This is a lot of work, and it requires a lot of effort. You would need to recruit more people to manage the site. You would need to change the layout of the site. Expanding a site is no easy task...

Also, I highly suggest you speak with Zharous before you even hypothesize making changes to the site _________________

I would definitely like to use fs (if i had some more) to do betting on sports games, etc...maybe toss in fantasy league links and see how we all do? Winners get fs and we can increase the use of it in the trade forums.

Also, lld in WoW (llpvp is what i see most ppl call it) is entirely viable and possibly adding in a section for WoW would be the easiest I know of to implement other games into the site. I havent got HGL yet, but I definitely want to pick it up soon, especially to see if lld is possible in it.

Just my 2 cents _________________Napalm loves the little children, all the little children of the world,
Red and Yellow, Black and White
They are Candles in the Night
Napalm loves the little children of the world.

Good suggestions. I've spoken with Zharous on the subject, and when he has some time we're going to to look into what else we can bring to the site. Right now, I think we're going to shy away from expanding too far beyond Diablo 2, but ThatGuy's betting league idea is a solid one. Adding built-in games is also a possibility we may pursue.

Thanks for the feedback, those who commented. I hope in the near future we can bring you more cool stuff to do while you're here, and keep y'all entertained when you're not playing D2._________________The New LLD101 splash page (Props to Shieron)

WoW is crack in its pixellated form, I can't lie its probably more addicting than d2. Problem being I'm cheap and paying to play irks me.

I would definitely participate in the sports betting though _________________Napalm loves the little children, all the little children of the world,
Red and Yellow, Black and White
They are Candles in the Night
Napalm loves the little children of the world.

I would be very interested to hear how this works out for BB. I don't know if you have a metric to measure increased site traffic, but I'd be curious to hear if this A) brings in more users, and B) contributes to the site as a whole.

As a side question: how much of the user base is shared between BB and LLD101? I know I'm not a member there; are many of our users active on both sites? What about other D2 sites? (Excluding D2jsp - if people go there, I don't want to know. Kinda like gays in the military: don't ask, don't tell.)

SOrry Dao...totally didnt see this

At this point in time our WoW and HGL subforums, while used by current members, havnt done much to draw any new ones. However, this isnt at all suprising considering they are still a very small part of what we have currently, and because there is no reason for someone looking for said forums to come to the BB. What they do do, is provide a direction for us to go in the face of a dying Diablo2. We mods are currently in discussion as to how to expand the HGL forums. I am confident that if/when D2 officially kicks the bucket, there will be reason for us to maintain the BB, if not just for the community it has become. This last point should not be overlooked either. If nothing else, LLD101 can become a general "shoot the shit" forum, an overgrown OT venue where the community that has grown here can remain, reminisce, drop in to say hello. With that said, there is no reason not to explore other games.

so to answer your questions more concisely
a) not currently, but in the future it very well may
b) definitely

re: your side question...
while i seem to be the only "really" active BB member here, there are a number of BBers who are registered, have contributed to site, come here to trade when they see fit. I also try to direct BBers here when they come to me with LLD items or questions. I couldnt give you any numbers, but our presence here is not insignificant. As for other sites, the answer is yes. Dii.net, Bnet, etc, all share active members with the BB. As for D2JSP, well, that place is antithetical to everything we stand for, so i wont even go there .

i like the idea but i think we should start off like BB did with just sub forums for now and until anything actually gets going dont expand on it

Easiest one to start that i can think of right off the back as many others is WoW and if you do decide to keep it lld only its totally viable in WoW there just called twinks (got a few myself)

now HGL....i havent played the actual game yet (did do the beta) and afaik you couldnt pvp in the beta and you cant pvp in the real game unless you get the subcription (reading off the back of manual)
it says for those who cant read the back "upgrade your standard account to subcription to get.....blah blah blah new modes including HC/PvP/RP"
idk if that means a total pvp mode or what_________________

Quote:

as long as you are living in America, you are either an American or an illegal immigrant.

I'd just like to say that I agree with expanded LLD101 to other games such as WoW (even though I would never play that). It'd probably be best for traffic; and traffic is like money on the internet; without it, you're screwed and living on the streets and no one, not even your mother cares about you, and your brother keeps trying to get a hold of you for that loan you took from him 6 months ago to buy that creepy rapist van you are still making payments on.